Dealing with Ambiguity

I read online this week that "a good teacher knows how to live with ambiguity". The first thought that came to mind was, "Well what does that mean?" Sometimes I will plan what I believe is a really exciting and engaging lesson and my students will leave the classroom more confused than when they arrived. Initially, I thought this meant I had not done my job. I was a terrible teacher and had missed my calling in life. Then I began to wonder, "Does confusion imply lack of learning?" My answer? No!
If my students are confused, they are at least thinking about the material. They are questioning concepts and playing with ideas in their head. My solution to confusion? Revisiting material. As my seniors have worked on their research papers, I have noticed that their idea of paraphrasing is simply selecting a few synonyms for words and restating the same information. When I explained to them that this was not paraphrasing, but plagiarism, they looked lost. I decided to set aside a day of class time to discuss paraphrasing in-depth. I showed my students specific examples of acceptable paraphrasing versus plagiarizing a passage. Then, each member of the class created their own paraphrased version of an article passage. Once we reviewed the material together, I could see the light-bulbs start to come on.
Part of accepting ambiguity is also understanding that some lessons, novels, poems, etc. may not affect the student today, but one day they might look back and truly appreciate the things they learned in a classroom. They might remember the words of one teacher who cared.